2018 Chapbooks!

Our complete 2018 line of chapbooks is listed below; we’ve added three chaps to previously selected works. The first two titles are selected from our January pool of submissions, and we’ll also be publishing our first photographic chapbook (Light Experiments).

Says the Forest to the Girl by Sally Rosen Kindred (poetry)

Never Leave the Foot of an Animal Unskinned by Sara Ryan (poetry & CNF)

Light Experiments by Madeleine Barnes (photography)

Dreamland for Keeps by Sarah Nichols (erasure poetry)

Love Me, Anyway by Minadora Macheret (poetry)

Two of our 2017 books were moved to 2018:

Blackbird Whitetail Redhand by Lindsay Lusby (poetry)

Found Footage by Maggie Woodward (erasure poetry)

Congratulations to our new poets & writers & artists!
We can’t wait to work with you to bring your books into the world.

Thank you to everyone who submitted. Thank you for your patience in awaiting our reply—we took a bit longer to read this year than usual. Once again, we were given the pleasure of making some very difficult decisions. We had to say no to some books we’ll be buying when they’re released from other presses. We’re quite sure they’ll be picked up soon.

You can pre-order any combination of three, five, or all of the 2018 line, and we’ll send them as they’re finished on the binding table.

(All of our titles are individually printed, collated, trimmed & bound by hand.)

Sugared Water 005

a detail of a cover with end-papers

covers drying on the table

Sugared Water‘s fifth issue is bound in a hand-pulled print cover, this time a combination of screenprinting and letterpress. SW005 contains poetry & creative nonfiction essays. 80 pages, $12. Limited to an edition of 100. » more about this issue

Design, printing & binding by printmaker Nicci Mechler.

contributors

E. Kristin Anderson, Catherine Arra, Tammy Bendetti, Alyse Bensel, Sheila Black, Ariella Carmell, Susana H. Case, Su Cho, A.E. Clark, James Croteau, Carlina Duan, Patrick James Errington, Wren Hanks, Sonja Johanson, Eve Kenneally, Michal Leibowitz, Minadora Macheret, Laura K. McRae, Natalia Mujadzik, Tanya Muzumdar, JoDean Nicolette, Susan Rich, Thadra Sheridan, Shakeema Smalls, and Amanda Stovicek.

Centralia (Sarah Gzemski)

Centralia by Sarah Gzemski (cover: Nicci Mechler)

Centralia is a mixed genre chapbook, blending personal essay, photographs, and poems into a narrative of family, silence, admiration, and regret. It’s very much about things unseen or only hinted at, told against the backdrop of a small town in Pennsylvania, a community resting on a thin crust of earth spanning fire. This is a chapbook well suited to the image-rich, surreal imagery of an underground burn, rooted in a sense of place and colored by a veil of smoke. Just when you think you know what this narrative’s about, another fissure opens. | available from our shop

This chapbook measures approximately 6.25 x 5.25 inches. Its cover is printed via inkjet on Epson matte photo paper. Each book is handbound & trimmed.

Excerpt from “Attempt to Stop the Fire 1:”

They figured they’d dig it out. Get their shovels around the fire, send the men into the caverns, get them to start mining again. They figured the fire wasn’t in a hurry, that it would stay put while they hacked away at the fuel around it. But the fire taunted, always moving ahead of everything they cleared, growling. Machines only made things worse: they pierced the shaft, let in air that fanned the flames, wind a giant bellows in the black-walled tunnel. The team was only allowed to work from 8 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, as though fire could not run rampant on weekends, holidays, or the middle of the night.

About the author:

Sarah Gzemski is a poet and nonfiction writer originally from Pennsylvania. Currently living in Mesilla, New Mexico, she is the Managing Editor of Noemi Press and is working toward her MFA in Poetry at New Mexico State University. Some of her work has appeared recently in The Adirondack Review and Bone Bouquet.

About the cover artist:

Nicci splits her time between exploring, telling tales, and painting girls with inky tattoos. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with a pack of roomies & rescue animals specializing in troublemaking and joy. | @damnredshoes | damnredshoes.wordpress.com

 

Epistolary, the Art of Letters (Anthology)

Epistolary: the Art of Letters (anthology) via Porkbelly Press & Sugared Water (limited edition)

Epistolary is a 60 page anthology in limited edition (125). The cover art is a collage of gouache, tissue, ink, and paper. The binding is sewn by hand with heavy thread. | $9.50

the special edition anthology: a sweet treat

Epistolary is a special edition outside of the regular submission period & subscription. We asked for the “intimate and specific, letters full of evocative language, short, funny notes, or passionate remembrances,” fictional or poetic, unsent or scrawled on a postcard, inspired by a submission to Sugared Water that we just couldn’t refuse (see: “Morocco Mon Amour”).

Some of the snippets you’ll read are true, some invented, but all are intended for some kind of audience. It’s a little bit like sneaking a look inside someone’s journal, or wandering through a garden of secrets.

The art of letter writing is one that’s fallen out of fashion, and it’s with a nod to just this sort of archaic (or nostalgic!) practice that we bind by hand and produce our magazine in limited edition. We adore the physicality of a book you can hold in your hands, hand to a stranger, or gift to a loved one. We want you to secret us away or post us across an ocean—carry us. This edition is our fond epistle to you, dear reader.

XO,

Sugared Water
& Porkbelly Press

Contributors

Lori Brack, Marilyn Cavicchia, Emily Rose Cole, Kelly DuMar, Ruth Foley, Karen George, Mary Hammerbeck, Barbara Harroun, Joy KMT, Ross Losapio, Fayroze Lutta, Sarah McCartt-Jackson, Meredith McDonough, Lisa Megraw, P. Andrew Miller, Joe Nicholas, Julia Park Tracey (& Doris), Jonathan Travelstead, & Meg Tuite.

Emily

art inspired by Emily, in process (artist: Nicci Mechler)

December (1830) is the month in which both Emily Dickinson and Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson were born. For that reason, we’ve decided to read for the anthology (mostly) in December. Dec 5, 2014 – Jan 5, 2015.

Emily is a collection of poetry&prose inspired by the works, life, and letters of Emily Dickinson. The anthology is to be split into several sections, each loosely clustered around one of the major themes&image in her works. We’re looking for all kinds of work for this anthology, be it poetry, prose, creative nonfiction, artwork, doodles, notes, short critical essays, illustrated narratives, comics, or illustrations. Full guidelines can be found on our Anthologies page.

• 3 to 5 poems (no more than 10 pages)
• 3 micro & flash fictions (no more than 1,500 words total)
• personal essay & excerpts no longer than 2,000 words
• short essays (no more than 2,000 words)
• up to 5 artworks, illustrations, comic pages, scans of notes/sketches, photos (JPGs)

We request FNASR & the right to archive your work on our SW or PP website (Archival Rights).

Payment is made in one limited edition copy of the resulting anthology.
If you have a website, and would like it linked, we’ll do so from the contributor section of our site, along with a bio.

(listed at Duotrope)

Bodies in Water & Vein of Stone (open edition)

We’re pleased to present you with a first look at the open edition covers of two of our titles. These covers are inkjet printed on matte professional photo paper & feature hand-cut title flags, typewritten on recycled (100% PCW) paper. Each varies slightly.

Bodies in Water (P. Andrew Miller) open edition

Bodies in Water Cover Art

“No River Like Craving” (oil, 36 x 48 inches) by Angie Reed Garner.
Garner is a second-generation narrative painter from Kentucky. www.angiereedgarner.com

Vein of Stone (Sarah McCartt-Jackson) open edition cover

Vein of Stone Cover Art

“I Was Listening” (collagraph & monotype, 15 x 22 inches) by Kathleen Piercefield.
Piercefield is a Kentucky based printmaker and fine artist. www.kpiercefield.com

 

Bodies in Water and Vein of Stone are available via Etsy.
Special edition copies (screen printed covers) may also be available. Please check our Porkbelly Press shop section.

Stay tuned for a look at our first micro chapbooks & other titles.